Healthcare
is a highly regulated and complex business, which makes identifying viable
solutions challenging. Moreover, insurance companies and other industry players
often pursue their own interests to the detriment of the individual patient.
The average, everyday consumer therefore has little or no sway in terms of
personal accountability or “skin in the game” in regard to managing their own
health.

One
solution that continues to be bantered about involves a free-market model, one
that relieves consumers of unnecessary administrative burdens so that they have
the freedom to make better choices in terms of their care and the costs
associated with it.

At the
epicenter of this theme is a blockchain-centric project that aims to reshape the healthcare landscape for
both health service providers and individuals utilizing a free-market, self-directed
approach. Universal Health Coin (UHC), as it is known, is a public benefit corporation
in the throes of launching an anonymous, token-based healthcare system that
employs blockchain technology to arbitrage, decentralize, fund and provision
the fair payment of health services worldwide.

UHC hopes
to achieve this by leveraging artificial intelligence across a distributed
network, capitalizing on the explosive growth trajectory of cryptocurrency as a
store of value. Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency will be used to create
a direct personal and financial relationship between a UHC consumer and their
health service provider.

By doing
this, UHC eliminates third-party intermediaries who bog down the healthcare
delivery process, wasting critical dollars that could be redirected to more
effective medical options. A trusted personal relationship between doctor and
patient using machine learning and artificial intelligence is therefore
established via the UHC.

Here’s a brief synopsis of how this model will work: A UHC wallet is created and funded through
monthly contributions by the healthcare consumer for payments of future health
services. The wallet and value of the coins will be tied to the price of the
cryptocurrency NEO.

UHC
calculates cash payments by employing a distributed ledger system tied to proprietary
algorithms and artificial intelligence embedded within. So, when a patient
seeks care, it is validated as a Health Care Event (HCE) before being converted
onto the NEO blockchain in real-time to pay health service providers through
the use of smart contracts. This, in turn, covers the health expenses of those
using UHC.

Health
service providers are then paid at a negotiated cash price that’s built into a
blockchain smart contract.

Despite
its promise, UHC would be a massive undertaking amid a highly complex and
convoluted healthcare environment replete with silos, disconnections and
massive interoperability challenges. Nevertheless, this project deserves a deep
look as an option for repurposing the prevailing health system model that’s
highly restrictive and needs to be reinvented for the future.